{"id":1065,"date":"2007-09-17T13:16:45","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T13:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2007-09-17T13:16:45","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T13:16:45","slug":"two-poems-by-linda-preston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/two-poems-by-linda-preston\/","title":{"rendered":"Two poems by Linda Preston"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE PUPPET MASTER<\/span>

The puppet master who is always dusted with darkness,<\/span>
is about to end his performance.<\/span>
His marionette has slithered staring to the stage floor<\/span>
where her mother, father and sister,<\/span>
will never have to meet her empty eyes, or see<\/span>
exactly how she is sprawled and trampled.<\/span>
The puppet master is our intermediary  <\/span>
his maimed marionette cannot speak or weep<\/span>
without skilful manipulation \u2013 of his icy fingers.<\/span>
He has taught her silence like a prayer.<\/span>



MAN WITH NO NAME<\/span>

I see you in shifting shadows<\/span>
I see you slipping slyly from the gallows<\/span>
I see you strutting down the street <\/span>
spurs chinking on your feet.<\/span>
I see you chewing a cigar in smoky bars <\/span>
busy cheating at cards.<\/span>
The whiskey on your breath<\/span>
could make a girl dizzy.<\/span>
I survive your glacier glare<\/span>
But, I\u2019m aware death comes so easily to you\u2026<\/span>

I see you in petrol stains on rain soaked roads<\/span>
rainbow coloured, slowly dissolving at the edges.<\/span>
I see you lurking outside my door late at night<\/span>
smirking insanely <\/span>
like a man on a ledge, holding on <\/span>
waiting for the shock<\/span>
that will send him falling<\/span>
down<\/span>
down<\/span>
down<\/span>
into darkness.<\/span>


\u2022 Linda Preston says “It\u2019s cold here on the dark side of the moon \u2013 but I have everything I need for now \u2013 freshly bakes scones & cream, a Ted Hughes poetry book and a picture of Brad Pitt not wearing very much!”<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE PUPPET MASTERThe puppet master who is always dusted with darkness,is about to end his performance.His marionette has slithered staring to the stage floorwhere her mother, father and sister,will never have to meet her empty eyes, or seeexactly how she is sprawled and trampled.The puppet master is our intermediary  his maimed marionette cannot speak or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}